He asks for donations for the 'Broadcast' and 'Professional' versions, which is not unreasonable. The author has about 5 different versions as well, which adds confusion to the mix. There is no FLAC support, no onboard processing, no silence detection, no plug-in support, and you can only use one soundcard. And when you do, it's always the so-called 'Standard' version, with most of the features disabled or otherwise not available. If you don't answer his questions just right, you won't get a download link. The author also seems to enjoy making people jump through hoops.

When I was on it, there wasn't much traffic. An online forum has been replaced by a Facebook page. The UI isn't 'ergonomic' as it were, with numerous unnecessary elements cluttering the screen (what difference does it make to the user which internal player is playing the current track, and which one has the next track cued - you can neither change it nor do anything about it). One of the recommendations from the author is that you install DirEttore on a fresh OS install (that is a huge red flag). Once this happened while I was away, and my station broadcast the last half-second of a song for about 45-minutes until I could get back home and reboot DirEttore. Judging from online comments, this is a common occurence with DirEttore. The music would repeat in a fast loop, like a stuck CD. I repeatedly experienced hanging behavior on transistions - requiring a reboot every time. The cues aren't handled consistently often, the beginnings of audio elements are truncated. However, the playout software is less than stellar. I cued an entire 500 song rotation with Start, End, Intro, and Next Start cues in just a couple of hours. It's very fast, responsive, and intuitive. DirEttore (aka MixTime) - The only thing going for this software is its cue editor.This has been my experience with the various offerings: I've tested many Automation solutions, both free and pay, and I keep coming back to RDJ.

Simple radio automation software free